HAQEE SHANUL HAQ (1917-2005)

HAQEE, SHANUL HAQ (1917-2005) Shanul Haq was born on 15 December 1917, in New Delhi, and studied at Aligarh Muslim University and Delhi’s St Stephens College from where he obtained a masters degree in English literature He migrated to Pakistan after the country’s birth in 1947 and immediately immersed himself in the literary circles that were being formed in Karachi, the new country’s capital He added the pen-name Haqee to his name once he began to publish poetry and prose in Urdu His two anthologies of poems, Taar-i-Pairahan and Harf-i-Ditras, were published in 1957 and 1979, respectively He also wrote a book of poems for children, which was published under the title of Phool Khilay Hain Rang Birangey In the early 1950s, he wrote musicals for Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television Haqee consolidated his fame as a man of letters with the publication of his memoirs, which appeared in 41 parts in the 1980s and 1990s in the literary magazine Afkaar While working at Pakistan Television he was also associated with the Urdu Lughat Board, a public sector institution responsible for compiling an Urdu language dictionary His association with the institute lasted for 17 years, from 1958 to 1975, which resulted in the publication of a 24-volume dictionary of Urdu language

He left Pakistan for Canada in the mid-1990s, following several members of his family who had settled in Toronto He died in Toronto, on 11October 2005, and was buried in the city’s Muslim cemetery